Aerogel Based on Gas Vesicles and Bacterial Cellulose

Abstract

A material with a scaffold comprising a series of at least partially spaced fibers and gas vesicles locates between fibers. The gas vesicles comprise external anchoring modules that are effective to anchor the gas vesicles to the fibers.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority of Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 63/059,303 filed on Jul. 31, 2020, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

GOVERNMENT RIGHTS

This invention was made with government support under Award ID 2050101 awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The government has certain rights in the invention.

BACKGROUND

This disclosure relates to an aerogel.

Bacterial cellulose (BC) has played an important role in the bioeconomy, specifically in the medical and the food industries. Its roles stem from its high-water retention capacity, biocompatibility, resistance to biodegradation and high purity. Specifically, there are a wealth of applications in the medical field such as skin care, skin tissue repair, artificial dura matter, blood vessels and connective tissues. For example, this BC material helps accelerate the rate of healing mimicking the body extracellular matrix (ECM) and the never-dried wound provides cooling and therefore burn pain relief. Other non-biomedical applications include using the cellulose network as a carrier for catalytic reactions for adsorption of oil spills in aquatic environments, and for making moisturizing facial masks (BOWIL Biotech). In food applications, it has been used as a low-calorie and high-fibre food additive to emulsify, stabilize and modify texture. BC has been used to make nata de coco, sweetened jelly-like cubes that originated in the Philippines. Due to its high thermal resistance (up to 300° C.) it can withstand the processing temperatures of electronics devices and, thus it can be used as a dielectric spacer in semiconductors. BC's strength and lightweight allowed Sony to use it as a speaker diaphragm in headphones.

Gluconoacetobacter xylinus is known as the most prolific cellulose producer. In a concerted manner and via a sophisticated glycosyltransferase (GT) molecular machinery, this organism spins out single glucan chains while UDP-glucose are fed, assembled and translocated through tiny pores normal to the cell membrane. There is a hierarchical architecture in the formation of cellulose mat with single glucan chains or elementary fibrils (1.5-3.5 nm) forming microfibrils (10-30 nm) which are subsequently organized into stiff bundled fibers in the order of 100 nm as the bacteria concomitantly undergoes cells division. It is speculated that these cells may be polymerizing ˜200,000 glucose units per sec, per cell.

Cellulose extracted from trees contains other compounds such as lignin and hemicellulose that act as the glue that holds the cellulose fibers together. Artificial interpenetrating cellulose networks have been made specifically to reinforce the cellulose network with carbon nanotubes. To name a few, calcium deficient hydroxyapatite, acrylic acid (AAc), soy protein isolate and nanosilver have been incorporated into the cellulose network with resultant applications in bone colonization, heavy metal waste purification, and to prevent wound infections, respectively.

SUMMARY

Disclosed herein is the use of bacterial cellulose as the structural support for making an insulation material.

Bacterial cellulose (BC) serves as a scaffold material for an aerogel, and provides the structural integrity needed for the product to prevent slumping or to maintain it in an upright position. At the same time, this material is compliant and moldable so as to fit into a stud cavity. BC has a young's modulus ˜138 GPa and tensile strength of 2 GPa (on par with Kevlar fibers). Gas vesicles can be incorporated into the cellulose network, forming a new composite material with a functional architecture.

The cellulose network is already porous (254±76.65 nm), but having the gas vesicles embedded in them further constrict the size of the pores throughout the material, making it an effective insulator. Essentially, this method permits the anchoring of the fibers and help close the larger gaps in the cellulose network with the gas vesicle acting as the molding “receptacles”. Using genetic engineering tools will provide a flexible platform for modifying the scaffold and gas vesicles with the necessary chemistries.

Gas vesicles allow positioning of the Halobacterium salinarum cells within an optimal water column for nutrients and gasses. Cell exposed to oxygen limiting conditions upregulates the gas vesicle synthesis. In the photosynthetic bacteria, Anabaena flos-aquae, carbohydrate synthesis serves as ballast, while gas vesicles act as buoyant devices to rise these organisms to the surface where light is available. Gasses diffuse freely into the gas vesicles, but they are impermeable to water due to the high surface tension of the hydrophobic interior. The gas vesicles are cylindrical with conical caps or ends with an aspect ratio of approximately 2:1 (length to diameter) and lengths ranging from 0.1 to 2 μm. Thus, creating a process to selectively use vesicles on the order of the mean free path of air molecules (about 68 nm) could provide an R-value near that of an aerogel (R-value˜10° F. ft² h/BTU). Gas vesicles have been used in biotechnology as image contrast agents in MRI.

Two of the well-studied genes responsible for the structural compositions of the gas vesicles are gvpA and gvpC. The GvpA protein acts as ribs for the cylindrical cage and the GvpC protein strengthen the gas vesicles by providing an exterior mesh. This mesh increases the pressure needed to collapse the compartment. The GvpA protein of these vesicles acts as the “ribs” with α-helices and/3-turns and the wall thickness of these vesicles is 2 nm. Using synthetic biology tools, the structural genes, gvpC and gvpA, can be modified to display a cellulose binding domain to secure the vesicles to the fibers.

Essentially, what has been fabricated with these biological organisms are porous structures or a special kind of aerogel. Aerogel was invented in the year 1931, but due to the cost of production its wide used and availability has been hampered. Aerogels are composed of mostly air (>90% porosity) and possess a thermal conductivity lower than that of air as the gasses have a tough time diffusing through the nano-porous cavities (<70 nm). Aerogels are extremely light with density between 0.001 and 0.2 g/cm³ and have high specific surface area between 200 and 600 m²/g. Aerogels have been used by NASA during the Mars Exploration to keep the rover vehicle from losing heat and in the Startdust spacecraft as a collector to trap high speed interstellar particles. In the oil industry, aerogel play a crucial role as a lightweight insulator for oil pipes with a pipe-in-pipe configuration for underwater mining. As a result of having excellent thermal insulation properties, a thin piece of aerogel is sufficient to assures the fluidity of the oil in the freezing cold water. At the same time, it reduces the weight of the pipelines, thus prevents a boat from capsizing. Aerogels are specially desire where a thin piece of insulation is needed or where space is limited. Due to the large surface specific area, aerogels are widely used in adsorption applications.

To make an aerogel and prevent collapsing and shrinkage due to capillary forces either supercritical drying or freeze-drying methods are used. In supercritical drying, solvent exchange is implemented. With such, water is replaced by a solvent (e.g. ethanol) and the material is then subjected to purging with CO₂. When a critical high pressure is reached, CO₂ completely dissolved in the solvent which lower the liquid gas interfacial forces to zero. At this point, the solvent can be removed without dragging the walls and retaining the 3D structural network.

Instead of replacing the liquid with gasses as it is done with CO₂ in supercritical drying and with sublimation as in freeze-drying, in our method, the gasses are already present in the material. Integrating gas vesicles in the media is a completely new method to create open porous network. Cellulose has a high-water retention capacity thus in a sense through genetic engineering (through changing the surface chemistry), the capacity of the network to retain water was altered so as to retain air (gas vesicles) instead. The envelop of the gas vesicles serves as an interphase for conducting the necessary chemistries. In essence, the material will not have to dry the material due to its hydrophobic properties and its residence at the boundary due to its acquired buoyancy.

All examples and features mentioned below can be combined in any technically possible way.

In one aspect, a material includes a scaffold comprising a series of at least partially spaced fibers, and gas vesicles locates between fibers. The gas vesicles comprise external anchoring modules that are effective to anchor the gas vesicles to the fibers.

Some examples include one of the above and/or below features, or any combination thereof. In an example the material is an aerogel. In an example the scaffold comprises bacterial cellulose. In an example the bacterial cellulose is produced by a genetically modified bacterium. In an example the external anchoring modules of the gas vesicles comprise cellulose binding modules. In an example the cellulose binding modules comprise CBM48 from Komagataeibacter sucrofermentans and Micromonas pusilla. In an example the gas vesicles further comprise external hydrophobicity modules. In an example the gas vesicles further comprise external fire resistance modules.

In another aspect a method of creating gas vesicles includes using a genetically-modified bacterium to produce gas vesicles that comprise external anchoring modules that are effective to anchor the gas vesicles to fibers.

Some examples include one of the above and/or below features, or any combination thereof. In an example the gas vesicles further comprise external hydrophobicity modules. In an example the gas vesicles further comprise external fire resistance modules.

In another aspect, a biodegradable plastic material includes at least one layer of cellulose derived from a bacterial strain, wherein at least one layer is treated with a plasticizer and dried.

Some examples include one of the above and/or below features, or any combination thereof. In an example the plasticizer comprises glycerol. In an example the plasticizer has a glycerol content of up to 1%. Further included is a material made from stacked layers of this plastic material.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various aspects of at least one example are discussed below with reference to the accompanying figures, which are not intended to be drawn to scale. The figures are included to provide illustration and a further understanding of the various aspects and examples, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, but are not intended as a definition of the limits of the inventions. In the figures, identical or nearly identical components illustrated in various figures may be represented by a like reference character or numeral. For purposes of clarity, not every component may be labeled in every figure. In the figures:

FIGS. 1a-1b. Gas vesicles and cellulose hybrid material. FIG. 1a: Assembled fibers and gas vesicles FIG. 1b: genetically engineering a gas vesicle platform to have CBD, hydrophobicity and fire-retardant properties.

FIG. 2. Overexpression of diguanylate cyclase. The shown plasmid are expressed in E. coli BL21 (a) control plasmids expressing YFP. Plasmid expressing (b) an TM1788 gene from T. maritima and (c) an slr1143 gene from Synechocystis sp. (strain PCC 6803).

FIGS. 3a-3c. Genetic engineering tools to work with G. xylinus. FIG. 3a: circuit diagram of RSF1010 origin vector with the sfgfp gene FIG. 3b: Anderson's promoters (J23XXX) tested in this vector and expressed in G. xylinus FIG. 3c: Electroporation transformation efficiency in G. xylinus.

FIGS. 4a-4c. Improvement in growth rate curve and cellulose production of G. xylinus FIG. 4a: circuit diagram with the slr1143 gene driven with the Anderson promoters FIG. 4b: Growth curve of engineered G. xylinus strains Gx 60, Gx61 and Gx216 and comparison against the wild type strains FIG. 4c: Cellulose production quantification before and after drying the samples.

FIG. 5. Workflow for growing the G. xylinus cells and obtaining molded 3D printed nets.

FIG. 6. Simple media optimization of pH, tea type and oxygen content.

FIG. 7. Flow of the process for assembling the hybrid cellulose and gas vesicles materials.

FIG. 8. Gyp cluster from B. megaterium and responsible for producing gas vesicles with the minimum sized (5.7 kb) and the entire cluster (7.0 kb).

FIGS. 9a-9c. Adding a cellulose binding domain (CDB to the gas vesicles). FIG. 9a: gvp gene cluster FIG. 9b: Cuminic acid circuit to tune expression of chimeric protein. FIG. 9c: Production, lysis and self-assembly of genetically modified gas vesicles within the cellulose fibers.

FIGS. 10a-10c. Transforming the cellulose mat into a hydrophobic material through genetically engineering. FIG. 10a: Construct to modify the fibers with Bs1A FIG. 10b: Construct to modify the vesicles FIG. 10c: Assembly after secretion of protein complex into the media.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A method includes the development of a green insulation composite material that merges two biologically sourced materials: bacterial cellulose and gas vesicles (FIG. 1a). Fundamentally, the aerogel is made almost entirely out of biological organisms. An incentive to work on these materials is to step away from using non-renewable petroleum-based polymers and toxic products. Both of these biological derived materials have a set of unique properties rendering them suitable for attaining the sought-after properties (insulating, strength to support itself and degree of pliability). Furthermore, both of these materials can be genetically modified to bring desired features to comply with regulations (FIG. 1b). A low thermal conductivity (λ_eff<25 mW/mK) and high R-value are critical parameters to develop a high-performance building insulation material. This will allow to develop an R-value close or higher than R-6. Properties that should be achieved (in addition to thermal performance) are hydrophobicity (to prevent mold growth) and fire resistance. Normally, a separate vapor barrier is applied on the outer layer of an insulation material to keep it dry as insulation properties deteriorate when a material absorbs water.

Part 1: Establish chassis strains and work toward optimizing cellulose production.

Part 2: Add CBD to the gas vesicles to effectively anchor them to the cellulose fibers.

Part 3: Genetically engineering hydrophobicity and fire-retardant properties into the fibers.

Part 1: Establish chassis strains and work toward optimizing cellulose production.

Culture Set-Up for Growing the Hybrid Material and Optimization of SCOBY Culturing Conditions.

There is an immense yield to field advantage in using bacterial cellulose. For example, in a standard soccer field (70 m by 100 m), planted with trees would take 12-18 years before they can be harvested, and it would yield 3.5 tons of cellulose pulp after purification. Considering the same field size, culturing cellulose would take 10-15 days and yield 115 tons of cellulose. Moreover, arable land, fertilizer, pesticide, sunlight and the enormous amount of water used for growing trees are not needed. Moreover, the harsh downstream processing to remove lignin and hemicellulose are not required in the case of bacterial cellulose. Plant crops cannot be vertically stacked for growth whereas cellulose can as they do not require sunlight or direct contact with the soil.

Efforts have been made in replacing the commonly used expensive media, the Hestrin and Schramm (HS) media. At the moment the most economical and practical approach to grow bacterial cellulose is through using a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY). SCOBY is used to make a drink called Kombucha which it is popular due to its antioxidant properties, probiotic benefits and propensity to reduce blood sugar level in Type 2 diabetes individuals. Using a SCOBY culture media eliminates the costly ingredient such as the yeast extract (the nitrogen source) used to prepare the HS media. The co-culture can be grown in readily available ingredients such as tea, sugar and apple cider. In the present disclosure the SCOBY recipe is used, adjusting the parameters such as tea type and pH. Only G. xylinus strains are grown, so as to increase the bacterial cellulose yield and avoid the growth of other sugar-consuming organism within the culture.

It is hypothesized that upregulating the production of a dgc gene in G. xylinus would yield higher production. The enzyme, diguanylate cyclase catalyzes the conversion of two guanosine triphosphate (GTP) into cyclic di-GMP³² (c-di-GMP). The signaling molecule c-di-GMP, also present during biofilm formation, is known to activate the BscA-BscB protein complex by interacting with a PilZ domain, displacing a gating loop and opening the active site. As shown in FIG. 2, expressing the slr1143 (more prominent production) and the TM1788 genes upregulates production of amyloid fibrils in E. coli BL21 and as demonstrated through a congo red assay.

Slow bacterial growth is a significant limiting factor when scaling up product for commercialization, therefore, engineered a strain that grow much faster will benefit the industry. By expressing the slr1143 gene with effective promoters (FIGS. 3a and 3b) that work well with G. xylinus, more cellulose is produced, and at the same time the growth rate is increased significantly, improved by 4 times (FIG. 4, SEQ ID NO 1 and NO 2). Due to an improved electroporation method for transforming the cells, this transformation is possible (FIG. 3c).

In addition, the Anderson promoters were tested, first in E. coli then in G. xylinus cells shown in FIG. 3b, so as to tune the expression of this dgc genes. Multiple broad host vectors were tested and it was found that the one with a RSF1010 origin is able to replicate in agreement with the literature. Different antibiotics were tested and it was found that tetracycline, kanamycin, spectinomycin and ampicillin are good antibiotic candidates for selection whereas chloramphenicol and gentamycin are not. G. xylinus seems to have developed natural resistance to these antibiotics.

Processing of Cellulose Materials for Various Applications

After the cellulose materials is dried, the material become fragile and breaks easily. Flexible cellulose sheets were produced by submerging and drying the material in a plasticizer glycerol (<5%). As shown in FIG. 5, the material is grown on glass trays, then the cells are removed with 2.5% NaOH, then rinse with water and bleach. The material is subsequently washed and submerged in glycerol and let dry in metal racks. A glycerol content of 0.5 or 1% results in a smooth, cleaned (not sticky) texture. This will facilitate the usage of the material in a sewing machine. The resulting material can have dual functionality. It can be used as a biodegradable and composable plastics material when a single or thin layer is utilized. It can be used as a green vegan leather material when the layers have been stacked together. They material becomes stronger with the addition of layers. The applications for these ranges from leather bags and jackets, upholstery, footwear, clothing and automobile leather seats. Additionally, the cellulose material can be grown in a mold with a 3D printed grids (FIG. 5) to make nets for sporting goods, fishing nets, military cargos nets, safety nets, nets/mesh for packaging fruits, nature netting for trees (birds, mosquito) and medical nets.

3.5X Reduction in Media Cost and Optimization of Media

A simple SCOBY media (present a 3.4× reduction in cost compared to the Hestrin Schram (HS) regularly used in academic labs) in the literature was modified significantly so that the cells produce thicker cellulose mat in less time (Table 1). It was found that an initial pH of 4.75 is ideal and black tea works best (FIG. 6). In addition, pumping air into the trays does not help with getting the cells to produce more cellulose. Cellulose production starts when the oxygen in the trays is completely depleted, but a high concentration of cells must be provided. The cells can be grown to a high density in shaking flasks then transferred to the trays.

TABLE 1
Cost comparison of the SCOBY media
and the Hestrin and Schramm (HS)
	Ingredients	HS	K
	Apple Cider Vinegar		0.38
	1 Green tea bag		0.1
	Sugar		0.3
	SCOBY		—
	Glucose	0.25
	yeast extract	1.07
	peptone	1.84
	Na2HPO4	0.14
	CITRIC acid	0.21
	Cost (1L)	$3.51	$0.78

Transferring the gas vesicle machinery, the gvp gene cluster to B. subtilis making it functional and optimize the number of vesicles in the cells.

H. salinarum doubles every 1.5 to 3 h and B. subtilis and E. coli double every 20 min when grown in Luria-Bertani broth (LB) at 37° C., under shaking conditions. This piece of information tells us that it impractical to use H. salinarum as our chassis for producing gas vesicles. This work requires the transferring of the gvp gene cluster to B. subtilis PY79 using readily available genetic tools. B. subtilis was chosen because is generally recognized as safe (GRAS status), grows fast, require minimum nutrients, has an efficient secretion system and can sporulate. In regard to exploiting sporulation, the downstream processing for separating the gas vesicles from the cells can be facilitated by inducing sporulation. Ideally, gasses will rise to the surface and spores will sink to the bottom of a separatory funnel (see FIG. 7). After spores and cell debris at the bottom have been discard, the gasses left behind, floating at the surface of the funnel can be pumped to another container having the cellulose mat at the surface. Due to buoyancy of the gas vesicles, they once again will rise and lodge into the cellulose mat. In subsequent steps in the process, while the G. xylinus cells are weaving the cellulose fibers, the gas vesicle will be incorporated. Alternative, the hybrid material can be created in a layer by layer fashion by alternating dipping the material between a gas vesicle bath and the growth media. Either of these methods will create a highly porous cellulose material.

The 7.0 kb gvp gene cluster (FIG. 8) found in B. megaterium will be integrated into the genome of Bacillus subtilis PY79 by homologous recombination via natural transformation (DNA uptake). In B. megaterium, this cluster is not functional as it might be induced under certain not known conditions. New inducible promoters were developed that can be used to tune the expression level of this gene cluster. This cluster was previous moved to E. coli, but only the formation of bicones (first steps in gas vesicle formation) was achieved. The natural RBSs used in this work might not be properly translated in E. coli. Adequate expression of gas vesicles within the B. subtilis PY79 cells can be scrutinized via the buoyancy phenotype, TEM micrographs and phase contrast imaging (PCI) as these vesicles are refractile bodies (appearing as bright spots). The sequence with the gyp gene cluster for expression in B. subtilis is included in SEQ ID NO 3. To find out more about this gene cluster, a BLAST search was conducted using the gvpQ gene and protein sequences, but no homology to other gvp genes was found. The software RADAR was used and it was determined that the gvpQ gene has 5 repeats so this might be the gvpC equivalent in other organisms. This can be tested by measuring the strength of the vesicles with and without this gene. This can be done using a pressure nephelometry to determine the critical collapsing pressure of these gas vesicles. Scrutinizing and obtaining a basic understanding of this gene cluster will contribute to basic science and further understanding of these compartments can open new fields of inquiries and lead to new discoveries. Furthermore, screening for mutant cell producing gas vesicles with higher hydrostatic pressure would be useful.

To recover the gas vesicles the method used is cell lysis by inducing sporulation. The potential of gas vesicles disintegration (through protein degradation) due to specific proteases present in the cells for protein turnover is an issue. To circumvent this natural process, a protease deficient strain of B. subtilis K07 (available at BGSC) can be used. The parent strain for this strain is PY79 and it has seven proteases knockout. This will allow recovery of the gas vesicles passively (not requiring centrifugation), using an economical lysing method to release the vesicles.

Part 2: Add CBD to the Gas Vesicles to Effectively Anchor them to the Cellulose Fibers

Modify the Structural Protein to Display the Cellulose Binding Domain (CBD)

The addition of the gas vesicles to this material should significantly raise the R-value by reducing the solid portion and thus decreasing the heat transfer through the cellulose. To incorporate and secure the gas vesicle effectively within the cellulose network, genetic engineering tools can be used to link the C-terminus of the structural protein, GvpC or the equivalent, GvpQ, in the gas vesicles to a cellulose binding domain (CBD) or cellulose binding module (CBM) (FIG. 9, SEQ ID NO 4). CBD are usually found in enzyme that required docking (for close proximity) in order to execute a function. Specific CBM family include the CBM47 and CBM48. Examples are CBM48 from Komagataeibacter sucrofermentans and Micromonas pusilla. For example, cellulase from Trichoderma reesei is an enzyme with a CBD linked via a peptide to a catalytic domain (CD). Adding CBD should allow anchoring of these gas vesicles to the cellulose fibers. A B. subtilis strain capable of producing these genetically modified gas vesicles can be manipulated to create bicone shaped vesicles (the initial step in their biogenesis of gas vesicles) to limit the size of these compartments for reduced convective heat transfer through the vesicles.

Another technical challenge is to modify the vesicles without compromising their structural integrity. By controlling the expression level of the gvpQ-CBD hybrid protein, the correct level of expression to maintain the structural integrity can be assayed. To prevent steric hindrance, misfolding and low protein yield and to effectively create this multidomain protein, various polypeptide linkers, (GSSGSS)n, (GSSSSS)n, (SSSSSS)n and (GGGGGG), can be placed between the GvpQ and CBD. To promote intermolecular reaction between the gas vesicles and the fibers, the length of the linkers can be varied(n=1−4). The shorter the linker the more hydrophobic as there are less hydrophilic moieties exposed, therefore when doing this assessment, the shorter ones may be best if binding is not compromised. The last step in the process is to collect the modified gas vesicles and incorporate them while growing the cellulose mat as in FIG. 9. To non-destructively inspect the size of the pores, X-ray computed tomography, typically used for examining gas holes in swiss cheeses, can be used. This vesicles can be also inspected through SEM and TEM.

Test the R-Value of the Material.

To show feasibility the thermal conductivity of this hybrid material must be measured. For comparison, at room temperature vacuum has a thermal conductivity (λ) equals 0.001 W/mK and on the other side of the spectrum there is diamond with a λ=2000 W/mK. In building technology, the terms λ is shown as a thermal resistance. This is denoted by R-value (British system units) or RSI (SI system units) which expresses the thickness of the sample divided by A. The higher the R-value the slower the rate of heat transfer through the insulation material. Using a heat flowmeter (Netzsch HFM 436 lambda), the thermal conductivity of the initial material (not processed) which is bare bacterial cellulose was measured as wet and dry sheets with λ equal to 0.31 W/mK (comparable to soil) and 0.15 W/mK (comparable to dry plywood). The R-values equivalent for the wet and dry sheets are 0.46 and 0.93 ft²° F. h/Btu in one inch, respectively. For this material to be competitive, it should have an R-value/in circa R-6. This will make the material competitive with spray foam on top of adding the green and sustainability aspect. Below, and improved method is outlined.

Adding Holes to the Cellulose Materials to Increase the R-Value

A procedure to clean the cellulose, remove the cells, and dry it was implemented. The R-value of the resulting material with two different treatments was measured. The first sample was simply a rectangular sample of several stacked layers of the cleaned cellulose.

For the second treatment holes (diameter ˜2 mm) were punched in sheets of the material using a custom-built device for high throughput. The printed device consists of a 3D printed 8″×6″ holder for multiple push-pins spaced about ⅕ inch (5 mm) apart. Each sheet was punched multiple times in different orientations to create hundreds of “randomly” arranged holes. The last step of making this sample consisted of stacking rectangular cutouts of the sheets so that the holes did not line up in different layers.

The measured R-value for Sample 1 (simple stacking) was 1.78. The measure R-value for Sample 2 (layers with holes) was 3.27, which is nearly as high the R-value of fiberglass insulation, which is about 3.5. By adding the GVs, materials with even higher values (with nanopore sized) can be produced. Furthermore, as a risk mitigation strategy, optimizing the size and arrangement of punched holes in multiple layers could lead to a cost competitive material with high R-value even without the addition of gas vesicles as these materials are green.

Adding a cocktail of protease inhibitors would prevent GVs from getting degraded by G.xylinus proteases before getting incorporated and shaping the cellulose mat. The GVs after purification and resuspension in 1×PBS are mixed with 2X SCOBY media in a 1:1 ratio with the inoculum of G. xylinus cells grown for 3 days (when using the WT strain). The mixture of the WT cells, media and GVs are grown for 8 days on square plates. After this the mat is cleaned with 2.5% NaOH and bleach before folding over multiple times. Other scaffolding material could be used in the process especially grown material such as mycelium cells. Other scaffolding materials include silk, down, leather, fur, wool, polyester, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) and silica. A linker module needs to be present to promote attachment of these scaffolding materials to the GVs.

Part #3: Genetically Engineering Hydrophobicity and Fire-Retardant Properties into the Fibers.

Making the Cellulose Fibers Hydrophobic by Coating the Fibers with CBD-Hydrophobin.

For this material to be a multifunctional insulation material, its hydrophobicity or vapor barrier capability must be confirmed. Keeping a wall sections dry is a critical property of any building insulation material to prevent the growth of mold. If the addition of the gas vesicles does not provide sufficient vapor barrier performance, modification of the vesicles' coating through genetic engineering will be needed. This modification might need to be done only on the surface of the material and not within the material. A candidate with a hydrophobic cap is the protein, Bs1A, which would mask the small hydrophilic protein, GvpQ on a gas vesicle. The Bs1A proteins forms an elastic film in an air-water interphase.

In addition to covering the gas vesicles, it is helpful to cloak the hydrophilic cellulose fibers. A genetic circuit has been designed to do this using the same Bs1A protein (FIG. 11, SEQ ID NO 5). Other hydrophobins can be screened to find the right candidate suited for this application. The candidates hydrophobins include HFBI, EAS, DewA, chaplins, SapB, SapT, cryparin and HypA.

B. subtilis is known for its ability to secrete large quantities of protein (20-25 g/L have been reported) and has been used widely in industry. Considering this, B. subtilis can be used as a workhorse for producing and secreting out this coating enzyme. Enzymes targeted for secretion contain a signaling peptide (SP), and are translocated to the secretion machinery. Once the surface has been modified with these engineered proteins, they can be tested using contact angle measurements. A contact angle greater than 120° would make this material fall in the hydrophobic range. This measurement can be done through using an optical tensiometer device.

Modify the Fibers to be Fire-Resistant with Melanin Materials

Untreated cellulose with high porosity is a potential fire hazard. To comply with building fire codes, treatment of our material with boric acid, halogenated anilines, or brominated compounds (BRFs) would bring it into compliance with building fire codes. However, to avoid or reduce these environmentally problematic treatments, bacterial produced melanin to enhance the flame-retardant properties of our materials can be explored. Melanin resembles synthetic polydopamine, which other researchers have shown to be useful as a fire retardant. A tyrosinase enzyme can be expressed to form melanin in B. subtilis and create a composite polymeric material of cellulose and melanin at the surface of the material as a protective layer. Testing can determine if this composite material will char, sequester free radicals, and consequently stop the spread of fire.

Conclusion

It is expected that the degree of entanglement and packing density is important, as the nanoporosity of the network is important to obtaining a material with a high R-value. The cellulose network will act as a carrier for the interweaved gas vesicles which brings about the nanoscale porosity to the network. At the cellulose-medium interfaces the hydrophobins, Bs1A or HFBI could impart the hydrophobicity properties needed to keep this material from getting wet (antimicrobial properties) and to preserve the insulation properties. In addition to moving genes to another more suitable chassis, genetically engineering tools are useful because instead of adding expensive chemicals for surface modification (e.g. adding hydrophobicity), those changes can be introduced at the genetic level. In the future, the capabilities of gas vesicle to dampen sound due to the ability of gas vesicles to scatter sound waves and other applications for this cutting-edge research can be explored. These applications encompass hydrophobic clothing and thin lining for coats and vehicles (transportation), oil spills cleanups, cosmetics, acoustic insulation, filtration, packaging materials and thermal shielding for extreme cold and hot environments (deep ocean, artic and space explorations).

Examples of the materials, strains, systems, methods and apparatuses discussed herein are not limited in application to the details of construction and the arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The systems, methods and apparatuses are capable of implementation in other examples and of being practiced or of being carried out in various ways. Examples of specific implementations are provided herein for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to be limiting. In particular, functions, components, elements, and features discussed in connection with any one or more examples are not intended to be excluded from a similar role in any other examples.

Examples disclosed herein may be combined with other examples in any manner consistent with at least one of the principles disclosed herein, and references to “an example,” “some examples,” “an alternate example,” “various examples,” “one example” or the like are not necessarily mutually exclusive and are intended to indicate that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described may be included in at least one example. The appearances of such terms herein are not necessarily all referring to the same example.

Also, the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. Any references to examples, components, elements, acts, or functions of the computer program products, systems and methods herein referred to in the singular may also embrace embodiments including a plurality, and any references in plural to any example, component, element, act, or function herein may also embrace examples including only a singularity. Accordingly, references in the singular or plural form are not intended to limit the presently disclosed systems or methods, their components, acts, or elements. The use herein of “including,” “comprising,” “having,” “containing,” “involving,” and variations thereof is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items. References to “or” may be construed as inclusive so that any terms described using “or” may indicate any of a single, more than one, and all of the described terms.

Having described above several aspects of at least one example, it is to be appreciated various alterations, modifications, and improvements will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Such alterations, modifications, and improvements are intended to be part of this disclosure and are intended to be within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the foregoing description and drawings are by way of example only, and the scope of the invention should be determined from proper construction of the appended claims, and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A material comprising:

a scaffold comprising a series of at least partially spaced fibers; and

gas vesicles locates between fibers, wherein the gas vesicles comprise external anchoring modules that are effective to anchor the gas vesicles to the fibers.

2. The material of claim 1, comprising an aerogel.

3. The material of claim 1, wherein the scaffold comprises bacterial cellulose.

4. The material of claim 3, wherein the bacterial cellulose is produced by a genetically modified bacterium.

5. The material of claim 1, wherein the external anchoring modules of the gas vesicles comprise cellulose binding modules.

6. The material of claim 5, wherein the cellulose binding modules comprise CBM48 from Komagataeibacter sucrofermentans and Micromonas pusilla.

7. The material of claim 1, wherein the gas vesicles further comprise external hydrophobicity modules.

8. The material of claim 1, wherein the gas vesicles further comprise external fire resistance modules.

9. A method of creating gas vesicles, comprising:

using a genetically-modified bacterium to produce gas vesicles that comprise external anchoring modules that are effective to anchor the gas vesicles to fibers.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the gas vesicles further comprise external hydrophobicity modules.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the gas vesicles further comprise external fire resistance modules.

12. A biodegradable plastic material comprising:

at least one layer of cellulose derived from a bacterial strain, wherein at least one layer is treated with a plasticizer and dried.

13. The plastic material of claim 12, wherein the plasticizer comprises glycerol.

14. The plastic material of claim 13, wherein the plasticizer has a glycerol content of up to 1%.

15. A material made from stacked layers of the plastic material of claim 11.